Business Continuity And Recovery Plans: What CIOs Should Do Now

The coronavirus outbreak is spreading throughout the world and its economic symptoms continue to emerge. A growing number of small and established companies, like Apple and Walmart have announced they will not hit their financial goals for the next quarter due to major disruptions in the supply chain and reduced customer demand.

To mitigate the impact, most businesses are turning to digital channels, operations, and products. CIOs are finding ways to maximize digital workplace resources and technologies to meet changing customer demands. But that’s not all.

Natural disasters, cybersecurity, and new threats are also on the rise. Businesses with well-documented continuity strategies and recovery plans are more likely to succeed. Experts say these companies will make lemonades from the crisis and come out stronger than before. That could be you.

In this blog post, we look at how CIOs can expand digital workplace resources and leverage technology to address these emerging concerns and realize business continuity.

How To Expand Workplace Resources

To stop the virus from spreading and keep everyone safe, companies are encouraging employees to work from home.  For CIOs, it’s the time to make sure all your team members have systems in place to remain productive. And here are a few steps to take:

Step 1: Identify Remote Jobs And Systems

Study workflow of employees in your company and identify jobs that can be done remotely. Afterward, identify the systems these employees might need. For instance, they may need in-house communication solutions such as messaging, email, ERP, and CRM systems. Also, don’t forget to include communications with business partners and your customers.

Step 2: Reassess Your Risk Profile

As mentioned earlier, cybersecurity threats are on the rise. So, review your existing security infrastructure and determine what your employees will need to work safely.

Look at the hardware and the networks they will use while working remotely. Are their devices personal or company-issued? Are the networks public or private?  How will you ensure all employees sign-in to company systems securely?

Step 3: Revisit Your Policies And Train Employees

When the number of employees working remotely increases, it’s critical to update your policies. Make sure everyone knows their roles. This will help IT specialists update system access. They may need to either expand or limit access. And finally, make sure all your workers undergo training on data protection, and how to securely share documents electronically.

Step 4: Acquire New Technologies

You may need to quickly acquire new technological solutions to facilitate remote work.  For example, you may have to secure video-conferencing and other collaboration tools.

If you have an existing vendor, consider renegotiating the number of users to accommodate the sudden surge. It may be wise to opt for flexible and short term contracts.

Now that you know what to do to improve business operations, let’s look at customer demands.

How To Manage Customer Demands

During difficult times, customer tolerance tends to reduce. Customers expect businesses to rise to the occasion and reward them for loyalty. If you don’t, you risk losing them forever. Solution?

Step 1: Invest In Self-Service And Digital Sales

As more people stay at home, businesses will experience an increase in customer questions, online orders, and cancellations. Rather than waiting until it overwhelms your customer care representatives, act now.

Increase your self-service capability online by investing in chatbots, email, and mobile apps to manage common questions. Let your customer care reps to deal with more complex problems.

Step 2: Personalize Remote Experiences

Not all products are suited to self-service delivery. For example, if your business relies on face to face communication with potential customers, then you may need to be creative. You could turn to telemedicine or teleconferencing to hold remote events. The human touch can be the difference between signing in new clients or falling behind during these challenging times.

Turn This Crisis Into An Opportunity

During this crisis, it is upon CIOs to rise to the occasion and keep their companies afloat. So take a good look at your company. Identify what matters the most and what areas need improvement. Most importantly, be resilient. To learn more, please reach out to Insure Your Company to speak with one of our experts.